4 unexpected ways to use Ansible

Ansible is well-known for automating traditional IT tasks, like server administration, networking, application deployments, and more. But Ansible can do a whole lot more. In Jeff Geerling's AnsibleFest 2021 presentation, Automating the uncommon—Ansible automates everything, he shared some of the creative ways he uses Ansible.

Jeff is well known for his popular Raspberry Pi YouTube channel. But behind the scenes, he uses Ansible to make his work reproducible while having fun discovering new ways to use the automation tool.

Jeff calls Ansible his "golden hammer" because it can be used in nearly any IT automation scenario. However, just because Ansible can be used for anything doesn't mean it's always the best tool. For example, you could use Ansible to build a web server or set up networking between containers on servers, but tools like Apache and Kubernetes would be a better fit.

Even so, Jeff says, "if you know a tool well enough and the tool is good enough, it's okay to do weird things with it." To him, Ansible fits this definition.

Log into the AnsibleFest website to watch Jeff's full presentation and learn more about how—and why—he uses Ansible playbooks to handle all sorts of unexpected things, including configuring Raspberry Pi software, managing his home internet, building HTML web pages, and even updating Ansible dependencies—as Jeff says, "Ansible automating Ansible."

AnsibleFest is a free, Red Hat-sponsored technology conference, a virtual event that brings the entire global automation community together. Visit the AnsibleFest website for on-demand access to the demos, keynotes, labs, and technical sessions that you may have missed.